In a first aspect, this invention relates to a loose top according to the preamble of claim 1.

In a further aspect, the invention also relates to a rotatable tool in accordance with claim 3.

Tools of the kind in question are known for example from JP 11197923 A and are suitable for chip removing or cutting machining of workpieces of metal, such as steel, cast iron, aluminium, titanium, yellow metals, etc. The tools may also be used for the machining of composite materials of different types.

For more than a decade, drilling tools as well as milling tools have been developed, e.g., in the form of shank-end mills, that, contrary to integral solid tools, are composed of two parts, viz. a basic body and a head being detachably connected with the same and thereby being replaceable, and in which head the requisite cutting edges are included. In such a way, the major part of the tool can be manufactured from a comparatively inexpensive material having a moderate modulus of elasticity, such as steel, while a smaller part, viz. the head, can be manufactured from a harder and more expensive material, such as cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics and the like, which gives the cutting edges a good chip-removing capacity, a good machining precision and a long service life. In other words, the head forms a wear part that can be discarded after wear-out, while the basic body can be re-used several times (e.g., 10 to 20 replacements). A now recognized denomination of such, cutting edge-carrying heads is "loose tops", which henceforth will be used in this document.

On rotatable tools of the loose top type, a plurality of requirements are put, one of which is that the loose top should be held centered in an exact and reliable way in relation to the basic body. Accordingly, each unintentional eccentricity between the centre axis of the loose top and the centre axis of the basic body should not be more than 0,01 mm. Most preferably, it should be smaller than 0,005 mm unless exact centricity can be achieved. Another requirement or desire from the users' side is that the loose top should be mountable and dismountable in a rapid and convenient way without the basic body necessarily having to be removed from the driving machine.

Drilling tools as well as milling tools (shank-end mills) of the loose top type are widely known and may be divided into a number of different categories depending on the ideas on which the designs are based. Accordingly, certain tools use loose tops having rear centre pins that entirely or partly (together with other coupling details) fulfil the purpose of centering the loose top in relation to the basic body. To this category of tools belongs among others US 6012881, which discloses a loose top drill in which a rear coupling part on the loose top is inserted axially in a jaw between two non-compliant drivers, the insides of which include axially running, torque-transferring ridges that engage corresponding chutes in the coupling part of the loose top, besides which a centric pin protruding rearward from the loose top is inserted in a centre hole mouthing in the bottom of the jaw. With the pin, a screw mounted in a radial hole in the basic body co-operates that has the purpose of locking the loose top in relation to the basic body. In that connection, the centre pin is cylindrical and insertable at a close (form fitting) fit in a likewise cylindrical centre hole, in order to, together with concave and convex contact surfaces of the drivers and the coupling part, respectively, fulfil the purpose of centering the loose top. The concurrent requirements of fit not only between the centre pin and the hole, but also between the drivers and the coupling part, impose extreme, not to say practically unattainable, requirements of manufacturing precision, and if high accuracy peradventure would be achieved, the mounting and dismounting of the loose top will become particularly cumbersome.

The present invention aims at obviating the above-mentioned disadvantages of the tool according to JP 11197923A and at providing an improved loose-top tool. Therefore, a primary object of the invention is to provide a loose-top tool of the type initially mentioned, in which the loose top can be centered in a meticulously accurate way in relation to the basic body, as well as be mounted and dismounted in a simple and smooth way. A further object is to provide a tool having a loose top, the centering pin of which can be utilized not only for the exact centering, but also to directly or indirectly - in co-operation with the radial screw - provide a simple and smooth axial locking of the loose top. More precisely, the loose top should be able to resist such negative axial forces that aim to pull the loose top axially out of the jaw, above all in connection with a drill being pulled out of a drilled hole.

According to the invention, these objects are achieved by the features defined in claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the loose top according to the invention are furthermore defined in the dependent claim 2.

In a second aspect, the invention also relates to a rotatable tool comprising such a loose top. The vital features of this tool are seen in the claim 3, besides which preferred embodiments of the same are defined in the dependent claims 4 to 5.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1

is a partly sectioned perspective view of a loose-top tool in the form of a drill, the basic body and loose top of which are shown in a composed, operative state,

Fig. 2

is an exploded perspective view showing the loose top separated from the basic body,

Fig. 3

is an enlarged exploded view showing a jaw included in the basic body from a top perspective view and the loose top from a bottom perspective view,

Fig. 4

is a partial side view showing a front part of the basic body,

Fig. 5

is section A-A in Fig. 4, showing a screw separated from the basic body,

Fig. 6

is section A-A in Fig 4, showing the same screw inserted into a radial hole in the basic body,

Fig. 7

is an enlarged and schematic picture that illustrates the geometrical design of a centering pin included in the loose top,

Fig. 8

is an analogous picture showing an alternative embodiment of the pin,

Fig. 9

is a perspective exploded view showing an alternative embodiment of a loose top according to the invention,

Fig. 10

is a side view of the loose top according to Fig. 9 as viewed along a long side,

Fig. 11

is a side view of the loose top as viewed at an angle of 90 ° to the view according to Fig. 10, and

Fig. 12

is a cross-section through the basic body on a level with the radial screw thereof.

In the following description and the claims, a number of co-operating pairs of surfaces of the basic body and the loose top, respectively, will be described. When these surfaces are present on the basic body, the same are denominated "support surfaces", while the corresponding surfaces of the loose top are denominated "contact surfaces" (e.g., "axial support surface" and "axial contact surface", respectively).

In the drawings, the invention has been exemplified in the form of a drilling tool, more precisely in the form of twist drills, i.e., drills, the chip flutes of which are helicoidal. The tool shown in Figs. 1 and 2 comprises a basic body 1 and a loose top 2 in which the requisite cutting edges 3 are included. In its assembled, operative state according to Fig. 1, the tool is rotatable around a centre axis designated C, more precisely in the direction of rotation R. In Fig. 2, it is seen that the basic body 1 includes front and rear ends 4, 5 between which a centre axis C1 specific to the basic body extends. In the backward direction from the front end 4, a cylindrical envelope surface 6 extends, in which two chip flutes 7 are countersunk that in this case are helicoidal (the invention is also applicable to so-called tap borers having straight chip flutes). In the example, the chip flutes 7 end in a collar included in a rear part 8 that is intended to be attached to a driving machine (not shown).

Also the loose top 2 includes front and rear ends 9, 10 and an own centre axis C2 with which two envelope part surfaces 11 are concentric. Between the envelope part surfaces 11, two helicoidal chip flutes or chip flute sections 12 are countersunk, which form extensions of the chip flutes 7 of the basic body 1 when the loose top is mounted onto the basic body. If the loose top 2 is centered correctly in relation to the basic body, the individual centre axes C1 and C2 coincide with the centre axis C of the assembled drilling tool.

Since the major part of the basic body 1 lacks interest in connection with the invention, henceforth only the front end portion thereof will be illustrated together with the loose top 2, more precisely on an enlarged scale.

Now reference is made also to Figs. 3-6, Fig. 3 of which illustrates how the chip flutes 7 of the basic body 1 are delimited by concave surfaces 13 that extend between helicoidal borderlines 14, 15. In an analogous way, each chip flute 12 in the loose top 2 includes a concave limiting surface 13. The design of the front end 9, in which the cutting edges 3 are formed, lacks other interest in connection with the invention than that the cutting edges meet in a front tip 15 (see Fig. 2) through which the centre axis C2 runs.

As is seen in Fig. 3, in the front part of the basic body 1, a jaw 16 is formed, which is delimited by two diametrically separated drivers 17a, 17b as well as an intermediate bottom 18 in the form of a plane surface. In the bottom 18, a centre hole 19 mouths in which a centering pin 20 is insertable that protrudes axially rearward from a rear coupling part 21 included in the loose top 2 and has a plane end 20a. The drivers 17a, 17b are non-compliant lugs (contrary to elastically compliant branches). In this case, the hole wall of the centre hole 19 is cylindrical and extends so far into the basic body that a radial hole 22 (see Fig. 5) can mouth therein. The hole 22 includes a female thread that can co-operate with a male thread of a screw 23, which is movable into and out of the hole 22 and serves as a clamping device for the pin 20. In the embodiment shown, the coupling part 21 of the loose top separates two axial contact surfaces 24, which are pressable against axial support surfaces 25 of the free ends of the drivers 17a, 17b. The coupling part 21 is initially insertable in the axial direction between the drivers, and can then - by the screw 23 - be turned into an end position in which male members in the form of ridges 26 on the coupling part 21 engage female-like chutes 27 in the insides of the drivers 17a, 17b. The ridges and chutes include side surfaces via which torque can be transferred from the drivers to the loose top. As is clearly seen in Fig. 3, the insides of the drivers are made with an asymmetrical shape, like the two ridges 26 on the coupling part 21, in order to prevent the loose top from being mounted in an erroneous way in the jaw of the basic body.

It should also be noted that flushing-medium ducts 28 mouth in the axial support surfaces 25 of the basic body as well as in the axial contact surfaces 24 of the loose top. Said ducts have the purpose of conveying flushing medium to the area of the cutting edges of the loose top.

Reference is now made to Fig. 7, which on an enlarged scale schematically shows the geometrical design of the centering pin 20. In this figure, S1 designates a circle circumscribed around the pin 20, the centre of which coincides with the centre axis C2 of the loose top. Simultaneously, in this case the circle S1 represents the cylindrical hole wall of the centre hole 19, which is concentric with the centre axis C1 of the basic body. When the loose top is correctly centered in relation to the basic body, the specific centre axes C1 and C2 coincide with the centre axis C of the composed tool, and therefore only the center axis C is depicited in Fig. 7. In the pin 20, two diametrically opposed surfaces are included, a first one of which forms a contact surface 29 that in the example has a cylindrical basic shape and is pressable against the hole wall in the centre hole 19 approximately in the surface field that is designated 30 in Fig. 3. This surface field 30 is essentially situated opposite the mouth of the radial hole 22 in the centre hole 19. The contact surface 29 extends tangentially between two axially running boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b, which are situated along the circumscribed circle S1 (like all arbitrary points situated along the surface between the boundary generatrices). The tangential extension of the contact surface 29 is determined by an arc angle α that according to the invention is less than 180°. In the example according to Fig. 7, α amounts to 170°. At the two boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b, the contact surface 29 transforms into two clearance surfaces 32a, 32b, which, together with a third surface 32c, are included in a second surface that in its entirety is designated 33, and that is diametrically opposite the contact surface 29. In this case, the surface 32c is plane and forms a shoulder surface for the screw 23, while the two clearance surfaces 32a, 32b are convex. More precisely, the clearance surfaces 32a, 32b are individually cylindrical and tangent to an imaginary, common circle S2, the centre M of which is eccentric in relation to the centre of the circumscribed circle S1, i.e., the centre axis C. The eccentricity is designated E.

As is clearly seen in Fig. 7, the two clearance surfaces 32a, 32b are spaced-apart inwardly from the circumscribed circle S1 (and thereby the hole wall in the hole 19), so far that the radial distance between the circle S1 and the respective clearance surface successively increases in the direction from the boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b toward the two boundary generatrices 34a, 34b, at which the clearance surfaces transform into the plane shoulder surface 32c. By this geometry, it is ensured that the two clearance surfaces 32a, 32b do not contact with the hole wall in the operative end position of the loose top. Furthermore, the geometry results in that the radial distance r₁ between the centre axis of the pin 20 and arbitrary points along the contact surface 29 delimited between the boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b, always is as great as the corresponding radial distance r₂ between the hole wall and the centre axis of the basic body. This means that the pin 20 for certain is located with the specific centre axis C2 thereof in a position coinciding with the centre axis C1 of the hole as soon as the contact surface 29 (by means of the screw 23) is pressed against the hole wall. In order to ensure an exact centering, the contact surface of the pin may be made with an extraordinary high dimensional accuracy, e.g., by precision grinding. In such a way, a dimensional accuracy of 0,01 mm (or better) can be provided.

According to the invention, the surfaces 32a, 32b and 32c are part surfaces of the common surface 33 that is opposite the contact surface 29 and that extends between the two boundary generatrices 31 a and 31 b. This surface 33 has no contact with the hole wall when the loose top assumes its operative end position, and may therefore per se be regarded as a sole clearance surface.

In this connection, it should be pointed out that the loose top in practical production usually is manufactured from cemented carbide or other hard and wear-resistant materials, more precisely by moulding or injection moulding and sintering. In doing so, the outcome of the manufacture may vary, and therefore a precision machining afterward is preferred in order to provide at least the contact surface 29 with an extraordinary good dimensional accuracy. The basic body 1, on the contrary, is usually manufactured from steel that does not present any difficulties to drill or mill the centre hole 19 in a single operation with a high accuracy.

In Fig. 7, the centre axis C3 of the radial hole 22 is illustrated by a dash-dotted line that forms an obtuse angle β with the plane shoulder surface 32c. When the pin 20, before turning-in of the ridges 26 of the loose top into the chutes 27, assumes an initial position in the jaw 16 of the basic body, the shoulder surface 32c and the centre axis C3 form this angle β, which in the example amounts to 115°. When the screw 23 is pressed against the shoulder surface 32c in the direction of the centre axis C2, the pin is therefore subjected to a force that turns the pin until the coupling part 21 abuts against the insides of the drivers 17a, 17b, i.e., with the ridges 26 in engagement with the chutes 27. Possibly, the mechanical turning by the screw 23 may be preceded by an initial turning-in in a manual way.

It should be axiomatic that the pin 24 by its geometry has a cross-sectional area that is less than the cross-sectional area of the hole 19.

In Fig. 8, an alternative embodiment of the pin 20 is illustrated. Also in this case, the hole wall in the hole 19 is cylindrical and has a cross-sectional area that is larger than the cross-sectional area of the pin 20. Instead of being cylindrical, the contact surface 29 of the pin 20 is in this case elliptic between the two boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b that determine the tangential extension of the contact surface. In doing so, a crescent-shaped gap 35 arises between the contact surface and the hole wall, the pin obtaining line contact with the hole wall in two separated places, viz. along the boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b. By imparting the contact surface 29 a high dimensional accuracy, the radial distances r₁ between the centre axis of the pin (and of the loose top) C2 and the boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b may also in this case be made exactly as large as the radius r₂ between the hole wall and the centre axis C1 of the basic body. When the pin is pressed against the inclined shoulder surface 32c, accordingly an exact centering of the loose top is obtained regardless into which position the pin is turned.

In practice, the arc angle α between the boundary generatrices 31 a, 31 b of the contact surface 29 should amount to at least 90° and at most 175°.

When the loose top 2 is to be mounted in the jaw 16 of the basic body 1, the screw 23 is held in an initial position, in which the inner end thereof is removed from the centre hole 19 of the basic body. In this state, the coupling part 21 of the loose top is inserted axially between the drivers 17a, 17b and with the pin 20 sticking into the centre hole 19. The insertion of the pin into the centre hole can be made without difficulty, because the cross-sectional area of the pin is less than the cross-sectional area of the centre hole. During this initial insertion of the coupling part, the axial contact surfaces 24 of the loose top will be pressed and rest against the axial support surfaces 25 of the drivers 17a, 17b, without the underside of the coupling part contacting the bottom surface of the jaw. After possible manual turning-in of the loose top toward the end position, the screw 23 is tightened in the way shown in Fig. 6. In such a way, the screw will be pressed against the shoulder surface 32c, and as a consequence of the same being inclined in relation to the centre axis C3 of the radial hole 22, the pin will be turned until the side contact surfaces of the coupling part 21 are pressed in close contact with the corresponding surfaces of the insides of the drivers. In this position, in which the loose top is axially locked in relation to the basic body, the loose top is clamped in a reliable way as long as the screw 23 retains the pin in the assumed rotation angle position. When the screw 23 is tightened, the contact surface 29 of the pin will be pressed in close contact with the hole wall in a position where the centre axis C2 of the loose top exactly coincides with the centre axis C1 of the basic body.

Reference is now made to Figs. 9-12, which illustrate an embodiment of the tool according to the invention. In this case, the loose top 2 lacks the rear coupling part that is included in the previously described embodiment. For this reason, the loose top is housed in its entirety between the two drivers 17a, 17b of the basic body, a lower axial contact surface 24 of the loose top being pressed against the bottom 18 of the jaw 16, which therefore serves as an axial support surface for the loose top. Side contact surfaces 36 on opposite sides of the loose top are pressed against the insides of the drivers, more precisely by the centering pin 20 of the loose top being subjected to a turning force by the screw 23.

In contrast to the previously described example, in which the plane shoulder surface 32c of the pin 20 extends from the end 20a of the pin and along the entire length of the pin, the pin 20 according to Figs. 9-12 and according to the invention further includes a shoulder surface 32c that is surrounded by two inclined chamfer surfaces, the chamfer surface 37 of which, positioned axially behind the surface 32c, gets in contact with the screw when the same is pressed against the shoulder surface 32c. More precisely, in this case the screw 23 includes a pronounced cone surface 38 at the front end thereof, as is seen in Fig. 12. In Fig. 12, it is furthermore seen that in this case, the centre axis C3 of the screw hole extends eccentrically in relation to the centre axis C being common to the loose top and the basic body, more precisely in such a way that the centre axis C3 is directed beside the centre axis C. The consequence of this will be that the front, plane end surface 39 of the screw is pressed eccentrically against the shoulder surface 32c, at the same time as the cone surface 38 is pressed against the chamfer surface 37. In such a way, the pin is brought to turn at the same time as it is subjected to a positive axial force that aims to press the axial contact surface 24 against the axial support surface 18. In the operative state according to Fig. 12, the screw 23 will lock the loose top against negative axial forces that aim to pull the loose top out of the jaw 16. Simultaneously, the screw will hold the side contact surfaces 36 of the loose top pressed against the insides of the drivers 17a, 17b, whereby torque can be transferred from the drivers to the loose top without any play.

A fundamental advantage of the invention is that it ensures an utmost accurate centering of the loose top without making its mounting and dismounting more difficult. In addition, the pin of the loose top - by being formed with suitably plane shoulder surfaces of the kind described - may be utilized to either only turn the pin or only apply an axial tensile force to the loose top. Turning may also be combined with an axial retraction, as exemplified in Figs. 9-12.

The invention may be modified in miscellaneous ways within the scope of the subsequent claims. Accordingly, the described shoulder surfaces for the screw may be entirely spared if the pin of the loose top is merely utilized for centering purposes. In such cases, the screw may be pressed against a second surface that is opposite the contact surface and may have any design, provided that it clears from the hole wall. Neither needs the centre hole in the basic body be genuinely cylindrical, provided that the cross-sectional area of the hole is larger than that of the pin. Accordingly, it is only required that the hole includes a part-cylindrical surface, against which the contact surface of the pin can be pressed. Furthermore, the concept "contact surface" should be interpreted in a wide sense and is considered to include any convex surface formation irrespective of whether the surface formation gives complete surface contact or only partial contact with the hole wall (e.g., line contact according to the example in Fig. 8). For the sake of completeness, it should be pointed out that the invention is also applicable to other rotatable loose-top tools than exactly drills, in particular milling cutters such as shank-end mills.